Infants and antibiotics triggering increased asthma and allergies

One more, a follow up to this post about antibiotics causing long term damage to your immunity, leaving you more susceptible to disease.

How about asthma? How about allergies? Their is an epidemic of asthma amongst youth. Could antibiotic usage be contributing to it? (Note: no mention of antibiotics in factory farming in any articles)


Canadian medical researchers are conducting a 2.5-million-dollar study to answer whether giving infants antibiotics in their first year of life triggers and allergies that develop later on in childhood.

More than 50 percent of Canadian infants receive a prescription for antibiotics before they turn one year old, reports Discovery News .

The researchers are intrigued by microbiota. Considered to be 'good' intestinal bacteria, microbiota protect against harmful bacteria and help the body absorb nutrients.

If the antibiotics destroy the good bacteria which is vital for strong immunity, this could lead to an increase in diseases such as asthma and allergies.

One researcher says-

"We've known that asthma rates and allergy rates have been on the rise over the last 40 years, and we have had difficulty trying to figure out what it is in our environment that has influenced that, I think we are all just tired of seeing these rates rise and not being able to explain why." Explains Dr. Piush Mandhane, one of the researchers on the project.

Of course it would be good if they looked at the poor quality of food, air pollution etc.,
Perhaps that is to broad for this study, but, it might paint a more complete picture.